posted Mar 11th, 2010 - The NSL News goes back to yesterday's story, which covered the 8-way competition at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010.

A short correction was already posted a few hours after the article was posted. Golden Knights team captain Brian "BK" Krause had read the story and called the NSL News to correct the "minor flaw"...

It is now time to set the records straight.

Kirk Verner will compete with the Paraclete XP 8-way team at the Shamrock Showdown, and it was interesting to learn more about the former Airspeed world champion anyway. Mike LaRoche will also stay with his family, while Todd Hawkins is still on his way to DeLand, only for a different reason.

The NSL News story on 11 February 2010 introduced Paraclete's 8-way lineup for the Shamrock Showdown, and Todd Hawkins was not in it. Thomas Hughes, Shannon Pilcher, Pete Allum and Kurt Isenbarger were planned to compete together with the XP4 lineup in 8-way.

Kurt Isenbarger is the official alternate for the Golden Knights, and the NSL News confused his first name with Kirk Verner's on the phone, when Brian Krause called for the update. Kurt Isenbarger is stepping in for Mike LaRoche, and Todd Hawkins fills his slot for Paraclete XP.

Todd Hawkins trained and competed with Paraclete's 8-way team already last year. Kurt Isenbarger has been the official alternate for the Golden Knights ever since the new lineup was recruited.

The situation has not changed much after the correction of the story, neither for Paraclete nor the Golden Knights. Todd Hawkins obviously knows his Paraclete 8-way slot very well. Paraclete's lineup at the USPA Nationals 2009 missed the 8-way ticket to Russia only by two points (189 - 187) to the Golden Knights.

Kurt Isenbarger on the other side is one of the most experienced and successful competitors that the Golden Knights have had in the past years. He does not train all the time any longer.

However, he still competed with the Golden Knights Gold 4-way team (Matt Davidson, Kurt Isenbarger, Brian Krause, Sean Sweeney, William Fleming on camera) at last year's USPA Nationals and finished in 4th place with a 21.6 average. Mike LaRoche was on the US Army's Black team. Todd Hawkins competed with John Eagle, John Hamilton and Eric Heinsheimer for A4C.

Kurt Isenbarger was also on the US 8-way lineup that competed at the World Meet 2008 in France. Knight Trax, a combination of the Fastrax and Golden Knights 4-way teams in 2007, had placed 2nd behind Arizona Airspeed at the USPA Nationals 2007.

Airspeed decided once again to compete only in 4-way at the new lineup's first world meet, and Knight Trax was sanctioned as the US national 8-way team for 2008. Airspeed won the gold medals in France. Team USA 8 with Kurt Isenbarger won the silver medals with a 20.0 average.

Kurt Isenbarger competed again with Team USA in 8-way and the Golden Knights in 4-way at the USPA Nationals 2008. He became the 8-way alternate when Brian Krause and Matt Davidson put together the new Golden Knights 8-way team in 2009.

Kurt Isenbarger's competition career with the Golden Knights goes much further back though. In fact, Kurt Isenbarger, Matt Davidson and Eric Heinsheimer are the longest standing Golden Knights at the moment, as they were already training and competing together in 1998. Only Matt Davidson is still training and competing full time. Kurt Isenbarger is the 8-way alternate, and Eric Heinsheimer is not a member of the competition team any longer.

Kurt Isenbarger has not missed an 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals since 1998. The Golden Knights won only once though. It happened when Arizona Airspeed came back from winning the 8-way gold medals and silver in 4-way at the World Meet 1999 in Australia.

However, he won the USPA Nationals in 4-way when the Golden Knights shifted from 8-way to 4-way. John Hoover, Christopher Talbert, Eric Heinsheimer and Kurt Isenbarger launched the US Army's 4-way poject in 2001 and won a year later at the USPA Nationals 2002. Sean Capegreco was filming the team by then.

The Golden Knights then competed for the USA at the World Meet 2003 in France and won the silver medals behind France. The same lineup competed again at the USPA Nationals 2003 and lost against DeLand Majik.

John Hoover recruited a new 4-way lineup in 2004 (Brooks Weiner, Brian Krause, Matt Davidson, Larry Miller was now on camera). Kurt Isenbarger had stepped back and become the alternate for the new lineup that lost to DeLand Fire after a dramatic competition and a jump-off at the USPA Nationals 2005.

He has been taking slots as active competitor on a more casual commitment level since the end of the 2003 season and is available for the US Army lineups as the perfect alternate when he is really needed. Now he will come back into action for the Shamrock Showdown and then return to his alternate position for the remainder of the 2010 season and the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.